Oscar Pistorius has arrived in court where he is today due to be sentenced for shooting dead his model girlfriend.
The Olympic and Paralympic sprinter, who was convicted of culpable homicide last month for shooting 29-year-old Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day last year, was escorted by armed police into court.
Dressed in a dark suit with a white shirt and black tie, the stony-faced 27-year-old stared straight ahead as he made his way through the melee. He made no comment to reporters before hugging his lawyer, Barry Roux, inside the courtroom.
Pistorius' uncle, Arnold, who has been the family patriarch throughout a 7-month trial that has made legal history as the first to be broadcast live throughout, struck a calm, assured tone.
"I never get nervous," he said.
Oscar Pistorius Trial - In pictures
In her verdict last month, Judge Thokozile Masipa cleared Pistorius of murder, saying the state had failed to prove his intent to kill when he fired four rounds through the door of a toilet cubicle.
Pistorius said he fired in the mistaken belief an intruder was lurking behind the door at his luxury Pretoria home, a defence that struck a chord with many in crime-ridden South Africa.
However, Masipa ruled the killing was legally negligent and convicted him for culpable homicide, South Africa's equivalent of manslaughter which can still carry up to 15 years behind bars.
State prosecutor Gerrie Nel said at the sentencing hearing last week that 10 years imprisonment was necessary to satisfy a public that could lose their faith in the justice system if Pistorius received a non-custodial sentence.
Defence lawyer Barry Roux argued the double-amputee sprinter should be given community service because his sorrow and regret at killing the woman he loved was the worst punishment of all.
He also said Pistorius, whose lower legs were amputated as a baby, would face particular difficulties in prison.
The sprinter, known as 'Blade Runner' because of the carbon-fibre prosthetics he made famous at the London 2012 Olympics, could also be given a suspended sentence or house arrest.
